The US Food and Drug Administration will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2006. In addition to a nation-wide program of commemorative events being held throughout the year, FDA has launched a special Web page at http://www.fda.gov/centennial.

The January-February 2006 issue of FDA's bimonthly publication, FDA Consumer, traces the agency's history from the passage of pure food and drug laws at the turn of the last century to the challenges posed today by cutting-edge sciences such as genomic and proteomics, and new initiatives like "personalized medicine." An online version of the magazine will be available on January 15, 2006, at www.fda.gov/centennial/fdac, according to the release.

FDA dates its origin to June 1906, when President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act and entrusted implementation of this law to the Bureau of Chemistry of the US Department of Agriculture. The Bureau, the oldest US consumer protection office, eventually became the FDA, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Over the years, FDA has provided Americans with increasingly comprehensive, science-based protections that ensure the highest quality of products essential for health and survival. Today, these products represent almost 25% of all consumer spending and include 80% of the national food supply and all human drugs, vaccines, medical devices, tissues for transplantation, equipment that emits radiation, cosmetics, and animal drugs and food, added the release.